Along with his Liverpool teammates and Reds supporters, Andy Robertson is waiting with bated breath for one unprecedented event to transpire in the near future.
Joe Gomez might be the longest-serving member of Jurgen Klopp’s current squad, but 205 games into his Anfield career, he’s still waiting for his first goal in a red shirt (Transfermarkt).
Speaking to liverpoolfc.com, the Scotland captain is fully confident that the 26-year-old’s golden moment will come, even if it mightn’t necessarily be a thing of aesthetic beauty.
When asked if his teammate is closing in on finally netting that elusive goal, Robertson said: “He’s getting pretty close, yeah. We’ve tried to say to him we don’t think his first goal is going to be a 40-yard screamer… I don’t think that. I think it’s going to be a scruffy one at the back post where it comes off his knee, shin and toe at the same time, so he maybe needs to stop that shooting a bit too much!
“I think everyone is trying to will it in for him, but it will come. Goals don’t define you but it would be nice certainly to celebrate a Joe Gomez goal, that’s for sure.”
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Such is the clamour for Gomez to finally open his goalscoring account for Liverpool that, whenever he gets the ball within even a half-sight of goal, cries of “shoot!” emanate from the stands.
Being the team player that he is, it’s not advice that he would heed if the wiser option is to play the ball to a teammate in space or in a better position to score, but we’ve seen in the past that sometimes the scoreboard is amended by the player you’d least expect.
Perhaps the best illustration of that came in the famous win at West Brom in 2021 when, with potential Champions League qualification on the line, who popped up with a stoppage time winner only Alisson Becker!
Nonetheless, there wouldn’t be a more popular goalscorer at Anfield than Gomez if it were to happen, and having played almost the entirety of his Liverpool career under Klopp, it’d be all the sweeter if the breakthrough comes towards the end of the manager’s reign this season.
Just imagine if the 26-year-old netted a last-gasp winner in the Premier League title run-in, or any of the cup finals that the Reds could potentially play this season. Then it’d be time to get the builders in because the roof would come off the stadium at which it happens!
#Ep100 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️